Tour de France Pool 2010!

As winner of the Tour de France Pool 2009 held by Meyrick Jones, I decided to step up and copy all of his questions from last year and apply them to this years tour! Very original I know.

How to play:

1. Answer the 18 questions below in an EMAIL. They are mostly multiple choice... easy peasy...

2. Send the e-mail to me at the address below:

vlavallee @ gmail.com

3. Lay your smack talk down in the comments section below if you wish....

4. Watch the Tour and enjoy!

5. Winner is the respondent with the most points after the final stage on the Champs-Élysées.

6. Have your votes in before the first racer starts on Saturday.

7. Anyone who tells me the results of a stage before I have been able to watch it, is automatically disqualified.

The PRIZE:

Bragging Rights.

Spoils of Victory - The winner will also receive a soon to be prestigious (and highly sought after) custom "TdF Pool 2010 Winner" image to display on blogs or websites - if you don't have a blog you can print it and put it on your refrigerator. Your friends will all be jealous!

Since I am not very good at photoshop. It will be last years image with some shotty altering to say 2010!

Also, local prize. We will go to All you can eat Sushi at BC Sushi sometime and winner gets paid for by the rest of the attendees. If I am the only person who shows up with the winner, well then it could also be a romantic date.

Without further ado...

The Questions

1. Lance is getting old, he just announced his retirement will be official after this years Tour. Predict Lance Armstrong's final placing in this year's two individual TTs. Add the numbers together. What is the sum? (ex: finished 1st and 3rd = 4)

(1 point)

A. 2-5

B. 6-9

C. 10-14

D. 15-20

E. 20+

2. Will Lance end up ahead of Frank Schleck in the GC? (1 point)

A. Ahead

B. Behind

3. How many stages will Cavendish win? (1 point)

A. 0-1

B. 2-3

C. 4-5

D. 5+

4. What will the winning individuals avg speed be in the Individual time trial Stage 19 in km/h?

(ITT Stage details are HERE)

-Within 1 km/h = 5 points

-Within 2 km/h = 3 points

-Within 3 km/h = 2 points

-Within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by >4 km/h = deduct a point

5. Who will win the polka dot jersey for King of the Mountains? (1 point)

6. How many riders will be banned, fired for suspicion, or otherwise ejected due to doping related issues? (1 point)

Only during the race are riders counted (July 4th to Finish in Paris)

A. 0-2

B. 2-4

C. 4-6

D. 6+

7. Which team will finish the tour with the most riders? (1 point)

8. What will the average speed bein km/h for Stage 17 finishing on the Col du Tourmalet.

-within 1 km/h = 5 points

-within 3 km/h = 3 points

-within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by 4+ = deduct a point

9. What will the margin of victory be in the GC? (The margin in minutes and seconds between winner and runner-up.)

(1 point)

A. 0-1 minute

B. 1:01 - 2:10

C. 2:11 - 3:20

D. 3:21 - 4:30

E. 4:30 - 5:40

F. 5:41 +

10. Who will win the GC? (1 point)

11. Who will win the Green Jersey? (1 point)

12. Which OLN broadcaster will win the competition they have each year to predict winners? (1 point)

A. Paul Sherwen

B. Craig Hummer

C. Phil Ligget

D. Bob Roll

13. Will it rain during any of the TTs? There are 2... (1 point)

A. YES

B. NO

14. Who will end up being the team leader for Saxo Bank? (1 point)

A) Frank Schleck

B) Andy Schleck

15. What is the second longest stage of this year's tour? (1 point)

16) Will Fabian Cancellara ride away from the competition again for a stage victory. (1 point)

17) Will Jens Voigt bring the pain? (1 point)

18) How many useless full day escapes will Sylvain Chavanel from Quick Step be involved in?

A) 1

B) 2

C) 3

D) 4

E) 5+

Good Luck!

Catching Up

I had a great Victoria Day weekend and decided I didn't want to let it slip by without describing.

Ride 1) 50k

The weekend started off with the now customary hammer ride Friday night. We had a newcomer this week with Derrick Lee. I think he enjoyed it despite the screaming pain in his legs and the screaming in his ears (HAMMER RIDE!).

Ride 2) 75km

To follow this up did a great bike ride Saturday morning. A group of 7 of us headed out to Horseshoe bay/ Whitecliff. It was a little cold of a morning, however, I opted against jacket and legwarmers and apart from a few short moments didn't find the cold too much. This was a great ride and Winston guided the way as the group of us followed. This turned out to be the longest ride ever for a few people. The group somewhat shattered on the way back as people turned off to go home or do more mileage.

Group arriving in Whitecliff Park

Winston posing at the Cliff

In the end it was only Mel and I riding through Stanley Park and along Beach road. As long as I have been in Vancouver I don't think I have done a Saturday morning ride without passing the hot dog stand on my way home and wishing that could stop and get one. Well this day Mel made a passing comment about the hot dog smell and that was all the excuse I needed to stop. After 3 years in Vancouver I finally stopped for a hot dog.

Mel and I with the most delicious hot dogs ever!

Tip, want to make food taste good. Ride 70km before eating

Ride 3) Cancelled, it was raining and I didn't want to get wet.

Ride 4) 162km!!!

On the Monday holiday a group of 6 of us attacked the north shore. Starting with Seymour, followed by some Indian River road and then a quick jaunt to Horseshoe Bay. As I was heading home over the Burrard Bridge saw Mel and Brittany heading the other way and decided to meet up with them and finish of my century ride. I was pretty surprised at how good my legs felt. I took Seymour pretty strong (dumb with lots of surges but strong) and by the end of the day my only problem was leg cramps however my muscles felt great and refreshed.

Weekend total: 287km. Pretty good.

When I add up all my mileage for the month of May I did 900.5km of riding. Not bad for a month with two weekend races!

A little excessive..

So I came across this on Bruce Schneiner's blog. A lot of interesting facts there, however, this seemed ridiculous.

The Canadian government disclosed Tuesday that the total price tag to police the elite Group of Eight meeting in Muskoka, as well as the bigger-tent Group of 20 summit starting a day later in downtown Toronto, has already climbed to more than $833-million. It said it’s preparing to spend up to $930-million for the three days of meetings that start June 25.

That price tag is more than 20 times the total reported cost for the April, 2009, G20 summit in Britain, with the government estimating a cost of $30-million, and seems much higher than security costs at previous summits the Gleneagles G8 summit in Scotland, 2005, was reported to have spent $110-million on security, while the estimate for the 2008 G8 gathering in Japan was $381-million.

These numbers are crazy. There simply isn't any justification for this kind of spending.

By comparison, the estimated total cost of security for the 17-day 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was just over $898-million.

This, too. Think of all the actual security you can buy for that money.

Updates: Ankle / Sun Run / UBC TRI

Lots of updates so I will make this brief. My ankle is slowly getting better. I can now bike on it more or less 100%. Going up steep hills still sucks because I can't ankle with my left foot, but oh well, fortunately this only means I don't win the King of the Mountain sprints with my friends out on hammer rides.

There is still some swelling, however, I am able to put full pressure on my toes which means I can bike and run more or less naturally.

As such, I had the Sun Run last week. Upon telling my physio this, she was not overly excited to tell me that I could get back to racing right away. With plenty of nagging I was told provided I went out and bought an ankle brace, that I could jog it but not push it and risk more injury. With Shawnigan Lake only 3 weeks away, this was an acceptable compromise.

This actually worked out really well. Because in not racing, I was able to run the race with Mel and pace her to a new PB! She wanted to go in the range of 44 minutes, but her previous PB was 45:XX so anything below that would obviously be a success, especially with having run the Vancouver half marathon the week before in 1:39:14!

This was definitely the most enjoyable 10k race I have ever done. Don't get me wrong, running a pb is fun, but that HURTS! Being able to encourage Mel through the run and take a race casually was a nice change.

In the end we ran 44:21, a huge PB for her, and I managed to finish the run without any pain which was a huge plus for me!

Many of our friends thought it was fun to joke that we matched. The shirts was on purpose, the shorts and shoes was somewhat accidental though.

Silly Sun Run people thinking that by putting writing on the photos that I won't steal them

After a week of training, mostly in the pool, putting in my biggest week of the season at 9.4km (Including the race) WOW ALL PULL! I was feeling a little more ready for the UBC Triathlon. I was given the same instructions as before. I could race but don't take any stupid risks on the swim/run.

PUMPED!

The swim sucked. I was really slow and had in my head that I was just cruising so as soon as anyone touched me, I slowed down and let them pass. My swim time was roughly 24:25, but this includes easily 30 seconds of me waiting for people to pass while I stand at the wall.

Check out that consistency! (note sarcasm) Also, read from bottom to top, 15 being my last 100

15- 1:38:20
14- 1:38:10
13- 1:48:10
12- 1:36:80
11- 1:36:20
10- 1:36:10
9- 1:29:60
8- 1:37.9
7- 1:38:30
6- 1:40:20
5- 1:37:3
4- 1:35:40
3- 1:42:00
2- 1:33:40
1- 1:22:70

#13... Yikes, don't know what happened there.

I opted to race in a speedo because I don't like swimming in a tri suit and decided that since I was cruising the swim, what was a few extra seconds in transition really going to cost me. This turned out to be a mistake as there was some minor (MAJOR) discomfort after about 30km on the bike. But on the plus side, swimming in a speedo did offer for photos like this:

No big deal

The bike was uneventful. I wasn't in as good of shape as I would have hoped, but the only thing that hurt here was my pride. Averaged in the range of 35-36, haven't gotten my exact time yet.

Then onto the run! I decided early that the run would be a cruise and I would only up the pace if my ankle felt perfect. I started off running quickly but not overdoing it. Thanks to a few poorly marked first km I thought I was flying! Went through 4km in 14:30!!! As a result, and seeing as how I was still making up quite a bit of ground on people I decided that my ankle was doing great and it was time to put on the pressure. I really upped the intensity and managed to run down 3-4 people ahead of me, finishing in 11th place overall and 6th in my age group (Why oh why did I have to get older!) But the surprise of the day was my run. The course according to multiple GPS was 10.7-11km long. As a result this means I was hovering in the 40 minute range for the run on a 10k. I have never run sub 40 on a 10k in a triathlon, and considering I ran the first 4k easy I was quite pleased with this. Shows that despite the injury and no running for 3 weeks that I haven't lost too much.

You may not be able to tell from this photo, but I am actually quite pleased with the race!

Best move of the day: Getting water at 500m to go and styling my hair!

Many other UBC TC members raced today.

Mel Nathaniel and Mike in their first Olympic distance triathlons both winning medals in their age group and mocking me for only finishing in 6th.

Along with Karin, Tiger and Jesse racing their first triathlons!

And Jared in his first SHORT! I knew you could do it!

PHOTOS! In no particular order!

Jesse and Tiger coming off the bike

Myself, Nathaniel and Mike getting ready for the ELITE heat!

Nathaniel pre race setting up transition

Storm too fast for the camera again!

Karin and Rachel

Mel Running down to her bike after the swim

Mel post race. Still having fun?

I'm sure I've missed some people, sorry about that. And big thanks to Scott and Eddy for taking all the photos!

Suffering

This morning Andrew Wight and I went for an early morning ride. Although it turned into a beautiful day in Vancouver, it started out pretty cold (1-2*C). Seeing the sunshine I was unprepared for this which resulted in some painful fingers. While out on the ride I just had to keep reminding myself of a quote that I jokingly mocked a friend with a few weeks back:

"There is no bad weather, only soft people"

With that in mind, I just plugged along trying my best not to complain. As I arrived home despite the 8 minutes it took me to get my keys out of my back pocket and the following 4 minutes to open my front door, it was a good ride. I was satisfied with having gotten out of bed early (6:15) and accomplished my ride before work.

Sure enough I got home and checked my e-mail and google reader, and this was the first listing to pop up.

I've quoted the best part below:

After the finish all the suffering turns to memories of pleasure, and the greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is Nature’s pay back to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you.’ Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few suitors these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms she rewards passionately.

-Tim Krabbe (excerpt from The Rider, 1978)

Good timing.

BLERG!

So everything was going well with training, did a LONG run on the weekend and body was feeling confident and strong. Then Tuesday I had to go and be a clutz and roll my ankle. Details not necessary, but from the photo below you can see the outcome.

Nice and Puffy, and Black and Blue!

For comparison of my normal ankle, see here

I was having a conversation with my mom not 20 minutes before this happened saying that I wasn't planning on racing much this summer, and with yet another setback in my training, that seems like a good idea. This just sucks because I had told Mel that I would run the Vancouver Half Marathon this weekend with her to pace. Won't be doing that now... And my chances of winning the beer mile this weekend are also significantly decreased!

Got X-Rays done yesterday, they came up with nothing broken which is good, and am going to physio tomorrow morning.

BLERG!

Wake Up Call

Last night went out for a ride. Was going to be a quick and easy 25k before doing a short run. While out on my ride a friend of mine, Eric Suess who I have mentioned before FLEW by me on his bike. He was doing intervals so I decided to stick with him in his draft for as long as I could. Well, that didn't last too long. Last summer we were pretty much tied on the bike. It would appear as though that is no longer the case. I guess I need to get myself back in gear or else it will be a long summer.

In other news, my friend Kory is running his first Ultramarathon (50 miles / 80km) this weekend in Olympia Washington. Myself, his wife and a friend from the states are all going to watch/cheer on and crew the race. I'm pretty excited. Full report when I get back!